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Lecture 5. Phonetic and graphic expressive means and stylistic devices

1. Instrumentation means: alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, tone.

2. Versification means: rhyme, rhythm.

3. Graphic means: punctuation, orthography, type, text segmentation.

Stylistically marked phonemes do not exist. Consequently, there are no expressive means on the phonological language level. Nevertheless, specific combinations of sounds may create different speech effects and devices. While studying phonetic stylistic devices we deal with the way words sound in combination. Phonetic SD are used to produce a certain acoustic effect and add emphasis to the utterance, arousing certain emotions on the part of the reader or the listener.

Euphony (Greek eu = “well”, phone = “sound”) is a combination of sounds capable of producing a pleasing acoustic effect. Euphony is generally achieved by phonetic stylistic devices which belong to versification and instrumentation types.

1. Instrumentation means: alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, tone.

Instrumentation is the art of selecting and combining sounds in order to make utterances expressive and melodic. Instrumentation unites three basic stylistic devices: alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia.

Alliteration (Latin al - “to”, litters - “letters”) is a stylistically motivated repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of successive words or accented syllables. Alliteration is often used in children's rhymes, because it emphasizes rhythm and makes memorizing easier:

She sells sea shells on the sea shore.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper.

Alliteration is deeply rooted in the traditions of English folklore:

There are twelve months in all the year,

As I hear many men say.

But the merriest month in all the year

Is the merry month of May. (Popular Ballad).

The same effect is employed in advertising, so that slogans will stick in people's minds: Snap, crackle and pop. Alliteration is used much more in poetry than in prose. It is also used in proverbs and sayings (тише едешь, дальше будешь; один с сошкой, семеро с ложкой), set expressions, football chants, and advertising jingles.

Assonance (Latin assonare - “to respond”) is a stylistically motivated repetition of stressed vowels. The repeated sounds stand close together to create a euphonious effect and rhyme:

Ring out, wild bells, to the wide sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light,

The year is dying in the night.

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. (A. Tennyson. “In Memoriam”).

Just like alliteration, assonance makes texts easy to memorize: The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. We love to spoon beneath the moon in June.

It is also popular in advertising for the same reason. Assonance is seldom met as an independent stylistic device. It is usually combined with alliteration, rhyming, and other devices:

Брожу, ли я вдоль улиц шумных,

Вхожу ль во многолюдный храм,

Сижу ль меж юношей безумных,

Я предаюсь своим мечтам. (А. С. Пушкин)

Onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds which imitate natural sounds: wind wailing, sea murmuring, rustling of leaves, bursts of thunder, etc. Words which represent this figure of speech have aural similarity with the things they describe: buzz = жужжать, roar = грохотать, bang = бахнуть, hiss = шипеть, sizzle = шипеть на сковородке, twitter = чирикать, pop = хлопать, swish = рассекать воздух, burble = бормотать, cuckoo = куковать, splash - плескаться. Animal calls and sounds of insects are evoked onomatopoeically in all languages. For example, cock-a-doodle-do! is conventionally the English representation for the crowing of a cock. Interestingly, the Russians and the French represent this imitation as кукареку and cocorico correspondingly, which is significantly different from the English variant, although logic tells us that the roster's cry is the same across the world. It means that onomatopoeia is not an exact reproduction of natural sounds but a subjective phenomenon.

Onomatopoeia is used for emphasis or stylistic effect. It is extensively featured in children's rhymes and poetry in general.

Expressiveness of speech may be also significantly enhanced by such phonetic means as tone. To the linguist "tone" means the quality of sound produced by the voice in uttering words. In a general sense, tone is the attitude of the speaker or writer as revealed in the choice of vocabulary or the intonation of speech. Written or spoken communication might be described as having a tone which is, for instance, ironic, serious, flippant (1. легкомысленный, несерьезный; бездумный; беспечный; небрежный; 2. непочтительный, невежливый; дерзкий), threatening, light-hearted, or pessimistic. Attitude expressed in tone may be rendered consciously or unconsciously. It could be said that there is no such thing as a text or verbal utterance without a tone. In most cases, tone is either taken for granted, or perceived unconsciously.